Some records are created to entertain. Others to challenge you. Tom Morello has spent his entire career making music that refuses to sit quietly in the background, and his upcoming solo album continues that tradition. Everyone Gets Everything They Want comes out September 25 and has songs that confront fascism, racism, immigrant rights, and political unrest. Surprised? I think not.
Produced by Tyler Smyth, Carl Restivo, Zakk Cervini, Dan Carey and Sam Nelson Harris, the album brings together a diverse lineup of collaborators including Serj Tankian, Kneecap and Beartooth. It also highlights a new creative partnership with Morello’s 15-year-old son Roman, whose writing appears on five tracks after spending the past three years impressing audiences while touring with his father.
Leading the album is the new single Date Night, inspired by the true story of Dutch resistance fighters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen and their friend Hannie Schaft. During World War II, the three young women served as spies, saboteurs and assassins against the Nazi occupation, using their youth to slip through checkpoints, smuggle weapons, sabotage infrastructure and rescue Jewish children. Schaft was eventually captured, tortured and executed, never revealing the identities of her fellow resistance members.
“I make anti-racist songs for anti-racists. I make anti-fascist songs for anti-fascists. And I make anti-Nazi songs for anti-Nazis,” Morello says. “‘Date Night’ is really a ‘which side are you on?’ song. If any of that offends you, do the math. Oh, and Roman Morello wrote the killer riff in this tune.”
The album also includes the previously released Adjourn It, featuring Serj Tankian and Roman Morello. The song condemns racism and anti-immigrant hatred, with its video weaving scenes from the 1954 film Salt Of The Earth into a visual statement about resisting prejudice and injustice.
The complete track listing includes:
- Beth From Electronics
- Everyone Gets Everything They Want
- Adjourn It (feat. Serj Tankian & Roman Morello)
- I Am Not Yours To Command
- Soldier In The Army Of Love
- Unconquered (feat. Kneecap)
- Date Night
- The Last Rung On The Ladder
- Everything Burns (feat. Beartooth)
- Pretend You Remember Me
- Untethered
- They Can’t Kill Us All
Morello has long balanced his music career with activism, organizing rallies, benefit concerts and campaigns supporting workers’ rights and social justice. Fresh off another tour with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, he’ll also appear at Louder Than Life in September before curating the sold-out Power To The People festival in Maryland, bringing together musicians and activists for a day focused on peace, justice and community.
Whether fronting Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave or releasing music under his own name, Morello has never separated his guitar from his convictions. Everyone Gets Everything They Want looks set to continue that legacy with the volume turned all the way up.
Will Everyone Gets Everything They Want become Tom Morello’s most powerful solo statement yet?
